The present disclosure relates to an authentication apparatus that authenticates a user.
In the case where a piece of electronic equipment, such as a copying machine or an MFP (Multifunction Peripheral), is to be used in an office, being shared, a user thereof is authenticated by an authentication apparatus for grasping the situation of use and executing the charging management. Authentication of a user is generally performed by inputting an identification code (a personal ID or a password), however, in recent years, it has been proposed to use a mobile terminal, such as a smartphone, for improvement of the convenience of user authentication. With a typical technique, at the time of using apiece of electronic equipment, apiece of unique identification information of a mobile terminal is provided for an authentication apparatus, and thus the mobile terminal is used as a key for authentication.